CTC Community

"Our economy, national security, and quality of life depend on engineers, so it is disturbing to see how few Americans, particularly young people, understand the importance and excitement of engineering."

The NAE has outlined 14 game-changing opportunities for the 21st century called the Grand Challenges for Engineering. We want you to select at least one of them and in 1-2 minutes show us how engineering will create a more sustainable, healthy, secure and/or joyous world in the future! The Grand Prize video will win $25,000!

What do a robotic dog and fifth-grade students have to do with Changing the Conversation? Nothing until now, when the comic strip “Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog” started featuring engineering as a topic for a classroom project.

Leslie Collins is responsible for development and stewardship of a coalition of more than 150 corporate, government, engineering society, education, and diversity partners, representing more than 1.5 million engineers and students.

Ellen Kullman is co-chair of the CTC committee. She served as president of DuPont prior to assuming leadership of the company in 2009. She had been executive vice president and a member of the company's office of the chief executive since 2006.

Betty Shanahan is the executive director and CEO for SWE, a 20,000-member organization founded in 1950. In addition to her work on “Changing the Conversation,” Betty sits on the JETS Board of Directors and the STEM Equity Project Advisory Board.

Robert Hoffman is President and Chief Creative Officer of Gearon Hoffman, Inc., a $100 million advertising and marketing firm with a professional staff of 40 and a broad range of clients including consumer and business-to-business products and services.

Dr. Ray O Johnson is Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Lockheed Martin Corporation. He currently serves as a member of the National Math and Science Initiative, Hispanic College Fund, and the Project Lead the Way Advisory Board.

Dr. Vest was co-chair of the CTC committee. He was a director of DuPont for 14 years and of IBM for 13 years, vice chair of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness for eight years and has served on various federal committees and commissions.

Dr. Prendergast is the Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of IEEE, the world's largest professional association advancing technology for humanity. He oversees IEEE initiatives that foster innovation and technology excellence.

Dr. Giddens sits on the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of NIH, and is a Fellow of the American Heart Association and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Virginia "Gini" Kramer is executive creative director at the advertising and public relations firm Keiler & Co. She is an award-winning copywriter with broad experience working with industries from aerospace to manufacturing to the performing arts.

Executive Director, National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering

Dr. McPhail is the president and Chief Executive Officer of NACME, where he works at the nexus of practice, policy, and research in literacy education, post-secondary student success, community college leadership, and STEM education.

Wayne Clough is Secretary of the world’s largest museum and research complex. He has served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (2001-08) and chaired the Engineer of 2020 Project for the NAE.

Messaging for Engineering supports efforts by the engineering community to communicate more effectively about the profession and those who practice it. This report builds on the 2008 NAE publication, Changing the Conversation: Messages for Improving Public Understanding of Engineering (CTC), which presented the results of a research-based effort to develop and test new, more effective messages about engineering.